Scots wha hate

The latest development in the state of our culture and society regarding alleged racially motivated attacks on English people (your report, 12 December) is deeply troubling, and shows the rising levels of resentment that the SNP has managed to foment in its self-serving desire for separation.

There is little doubt that these assaults, both verbal and physical, are occurring and the baseless anti-English rhetoric being generated by some sections of the SNP grassroots cannot help but inflame the situation.

There has always been a healthy rivalry and general mickey-taking between the Scots and the English and this is actually a source of fellowship and harmony rather than dissent.

However, in these increasingly fractious and politically correct times it is being translated into acts of aggression and violence.

This will, of course, over time be reflected in the opposite direction, which only serves to make the matter even worse.

It is all well and good to drone on about the jaded, hoary old mantra about being “All Jock Tamson’s bairns”, but, like it or not, Scotland is no different from anywhere else and these latest figures prove it.